Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre

707 Seventh Avenue,

New York,
NY10036

the traditional soft cover souvenir program
for The Lion In Winter that i own was also
published by Ronark Pub. i don’t have a souvenir
program for Patton. i saw it at my local theater
not during its roadshow run at the Criterion.
since Tora Tora Tora also from Fox had a program
when it opened in Nov. i should think Patton
did as well.

also my collection of 137 movie souvenir programs
spans the years 1925 -1997.

several months back I posted a question and I was
wondering if anyone had any new info. the question
was simple. April 25, 1896 was a pivotal point in
movie history , it was the 1st time movies were
projected on a screen in a theater before a paying
audience. the theater being Koster Bail’s Music
Hall at Bway & 34 St.. now whatever “movie theaters”
existed in Manhattan in the first several years
of the biz were music halls, vaudeville theaters,
legitimate theaters or decent sized unused retail
spaces simply converted to show “flickers”. so
wouldn’t the 1st theater built brick by brick from
the ground up as a “picture house” been made note
of in the press at the time?

the first i was able to find was the Crescent which
was located at 36 W. 135 St. and opened on the nite
of Dec. 16 ,1909.

Jay Harvey, I have T-shirts, buttons and “programs” from “Rocky Four-The War”. I’m not sure anymore, but I think the buttons and programs were free and they only charged for the t-shirts. But that’s what I meant by other “licensed” materials. IMHO, I NEVER even considered ANY OF THIS the same as an “official roadshow program” that used to be sold during a Roadshow Engagement.

As techman707 says, souvenir programs were not limited to just “Roadshow” engagements. Programs (official, licensed, or otherwise) continued well into the 1980’s. I picked up many of these at the local multiplex, not just the big houses in Manhattan.

BigJoe, I don’t know the answer to your question, but you can be sure it was driven by money. I also know there were “official” souvenir programs that were planned along with a Roadshow release of a film and then there were/are “run of the mill” souvenir programs that were just licensed (by man different companies) for a fee. Sorry I can’t be of more help.

you make a most interesting suggestion in that
CT should have a page devoted just to souvenir
programs. to which i have a question for you.

the prime roadshow period as i have stated was
the October 1955 opening of “Oklahoma” to the
Dec. 1972 opening of “Man of La Mancha”. now i
didn’t go to every such film in that period but
everyone i did go to had a souvenir program. so
here’s my question- during this period the
studios still opened their continuous performance
films in 1 maybe 2 theaters in Manhattan. so
of these films how do you think the studios decided
which would have souvenir programs?

Hey guys,
I think that at this time a separate thread or section should be created on CT that just deals with “Motion Picture Souvenir Programs”. The only reason I bring this up now is because we’ve barely touched on this interesting subject and it has already become pretty long. With a separate thread it would be much easier for us to find what we’re looking for……just a suggestion. And while we’re on the subject of changes, the previous suggestion of a “like button” IS VERY IMPORTANT. However, I’d also like to add a “DISLIKE” button while we’re on the subject. If you’ve ever been on Facebook and wanted make your opinion known WITHOUT having to start typing a comment. Yet, your only choice is “LIKE” or select nothing and have to type a whole “COMMENT”, which as you know, can become quite long. Just as it will tell you “82 members also LIKED this ”, it could now tell you that “105 members also DISLIKED the story content”. Now you would have a better barometer of how the members REALLY feel! Just my opinion.

bigjoe59…WhenI saw Lion in 1969 I did not buy the program—soft cover—being sold at the theatre. In 1971 I wanted to correct that studidity and buy one.I was annoyed when a hard cover copy was air mailed from AVCO Embassy in NY. I should have inquired at that time who merited this version at the time of the original release. Does this mean other programs existed that way—maybe? probably? 45 years later could I have the only one that survives? If you could, tell me who published the soft cover. Ronark Program Co. NYC did the one I have. Also, do you have the program for Patton? I have no programs before the 50s so I have no personal knowledge of the silent era. But you might find the following interesting. A book published in 1977 is titled Souvenir Programs of Twelve Classic Movies 1927-1941 edited by Miles Kreuger. I don’t nave the book(only photocopies of parts of it)but in the foreward he wrote on Dec 2, 1975 he says “Although infrequently seen today, early souvenir programs…were issued for almost every major motion picture released from the mid-1920s until the paper shortage of World War Two…For the first half of this century, almost all souvenir programs for Broadway shows and later for Hollywood movies were priced at 25 cents…This is not film history being analyzed in retrospect. These are reproductions of the actual programs…”.

as I said I was 98% accurate in my memory so Idon’t mind you adding new info. to which two newquestion-

*the souvenir program I bought at The Lion In
Winter was the traditional one with staples in
the spine. I bought it at the film’s premiere
roadshow run at the Lincoln Art Theater on
57th Street. I never knew it had a hardcover
edition as well.at what theater did you by yours?

*also while its not perfect I find Kim Holston’s
book “Movie Roadshows” fascinating since its the
only book I have ever come across on the subject.
now during the silent era the author lists 85
feature films as having opened on roadshow runs
in Manhattan. now whether I own them or have read
about them i know of only five souvenir programs-
The Birth of A Nation, The Big Parade, Ben-Hur,
Don Juan and The King of Kings. i can’t believe
of the 85 films Holston lists only 5 had souvenir
programs. what’s your best guess at finding out
which of the other 80 films had souvenir programs?

Ed Solero…To clarify for you the roadshow database that I created, the number for each month is only for the first opening in each state, province and capital city which 99% of the time is the largest city. The roll out was intentional, the whole point of a roadshow right up to the end. The 13 months for Tango was about average,some are longer (80 Days took 23 months). It had nothing to do with its x rating. It was UA’s last roadshow with La Mancha just ahead of it and Fiddler a year before that rolling out the same way. Reserved seats are what made it a roadshow

Just my curiosity here… Was the roll out of Tango intentional? Or was its slow penetration (if you’ll forgive the expression) into smaller markets a matter of the controversial explicitness off the film? And was the New York engagement (and any others that followed) on a hard ticket basis?

Thank you for that, patryan6019. The elimination of X-rated films from historical context is one of my pet peeves. As is the elimination of THE BIRTH OF A NATION and DEEP THROAT from all-time top grossing films. It all seems like cleansing of things that the new researchers find distasteful.

bigjoe59…I’m going to disturb your comfort zone. I have most souvenir programs from the 50s thru the 70s. On 9/2 you wrote"I don’t wish to sound vain in my knowledge of roadshow souvenir programs but I am confident that Hawaii was the last such film to have a hardcover one". Sitting nearby as I type this is my hardcover program of The Lion in Winter. More importantly, on 9/1 you wrote “Hey I’m not 19 anymore either but I pride myself on being say 98% correct in my recollections” followed by the often repeated “the big roadshow films of the 1955-1972 period”. That is incorrect and no one has pointed that out to you (how can they all not know) until now. The final roadshow release is Last Tango in Paris, New York opening Feb 1,1973 (Didn’t you see it on the Michael Coate DC list on 8/6?). But this was just the beginning of the end of the era. From my own research on roadshows Tango took 13 months to open in all 50 states and DC plus the 5 largest provinces and Ottawa in Canada (A total of 56 of 57 first openings; I haven’t as yet found Alabama, which may push the true end further into 1974). The openings are as follows (in descending amount per month)— 23 in May, 9 Apr, 5 Aug, 4 both June and July, 3 Sept, 2 both Oct and Nov and 1 in Feb, Mar, Dec and the final (until I find Alabama) Feb 1974 in Alberta. bigjoe59, I hope you accept my information as helpful as I have much more that you and others may want. Just ask.

This was “VERY STICKY” the night it happened. An operator at the Lynbrook stripped a gear on the intermittent of one of their Norelco AAII Todd/AO projectors (greatest projectors ever made) during the run of “Doctor Zhivago” and as a favor I ran into Manhattan to Norelco on 42nd Street to get the part. Although I got back in time, that evening’s show had to be cancelled. It wasn’t installed by Joe Kelly (the projection star of United Artists Theatres projection department), but by one of the Altec “service Engineers” they also contracted with. If you ever saw the size and strength of those gears, you would wonder how it could get stripped. According to the operator, they were using those Mylar tear-proof type leaders that aren’t supposed to break on startup….and it didn’t, it nearly pulled the projector over. Whether then or now, you would be BETTER OFF with a film break than what the alternative is. Of course with nothing more than a hard drive to store a movie, there’s no such thing as a “film break”. There’s also NO SUCH THING AS 70mm with digital projection. It makes me sad to think of what today’s generation is missing. Not only the spectacular theatres of the day, but, 70mm Roadshow type presentation. Witness how they’re now going to disgrace the memory of “Gone With The Wind” with digital showings. They that digital hard drive copy on the screen at Radio City Music Hall and let me know how it compares with film?

On occasion. I recall that when Loew’s Capitol was running “Doctor Zhivago”, the Lynbrook Theatre ran Roadshow with them. The same thing was true for “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” that ran at the Syosset Theatre.

I’m sure there are many others, but I just can’t recall at the moment.

Al, Do you have links to any of these ads? I was there and I STILL don’t remember it being during an intermission (maybe I’m more senile than I think) I recall him talking about living in RVC at one time.